Page 170 of Chasing Hope

Despite it all, I can’t force myself to tell Caleb, not when I know it would break him.

Because my brother idolizes the man who abused me.

And I fear that everything he’s ever known would crumble if he found out his hero is the devil in disguise.

Matteo shakes his head as he skates off in the direction of the sin bin. Unceremoniously dropping onto the bench in the box, he’s still frowning as the jumbotron replays the hit.

The arena falls silent as we watch, and as the video plays, I can’t help but flinch.

The camera quickly cuts to Matteo to capture the corner of his lip twitch. He holds his hands up in surrender and calls out, “Fuck, yeah okay, my bad.”

I throw my head back on a laugh, unable to control it. Neither can the girls.

As if he can hear me, Matteo searches the crowd until his eyes land on me. The camera continues to follow him, filming the wink he sends my way.

The crowd goes crazy.

I’m not sure how we’ve managed to keep it out of the press but Matteo and I have avoided any and all blog posts. It helps that the puck bunnies have never been able to get their claws in him—thank God for that—but our little bubble of peace and passion might have been popped with that little display.

The bunnies will be trying to find out who he winked at now.

Caleb looks from the jumbotron to me before frowning and shaking his head, and I can only sigh.

I hope he forgives us soon.

Chapter 50

Matteo

ICEHAWKS BITCHES

IRVING

the bunnies are losing their fucking minds about Valenti

ASHFORD

cat’s out of the bag

CRAWFORD

about time

O’CONNOR

prepare for a storm at the bar tonight

MATTEO

fucking great

My teammates have been in my ear, relaying everything they’ve seen online.

Apparently, the video of me winking at Evie has gone viral. Personally I don’t understand the frenzy—because frenzy it is. Irving said it’s because I’m like Bigfoot; my love life was so nonexistent that, now that there’s a possible sighting of it, the hockey world is going crazy. In the span of a few hours, I’ve gainedhundreds of thousands of followers on social media…all over a wink.

I just hope Evie is okay with all of this because they’ll figure out it’s her the moment I walk up to her in O’Malley’s. It’s why, as the team and I enter the bar, my entire body is stiff, muscles coiled tight. No matter the amount of deep breaths I force myself to take, I can’t calm my body.

I’m used to the eyes that linger on me, used to the girls who stare at me like they want to own me. I’m used to the attention but even I can admit that tonight is different—verydifferent.